Chapter 4

"My axe!" Meng Jingzhou shouted in the illusion, wanting to go down to fish out the axe.

The River Spirit held up the three axes and appeared on the river surface.

"Young child, you..."

Splash—

Before the River Spirit could finish speaking, he saw Meng Jingzhou take a dive and jump into the river with a splash. The bubbles he spat out were bigger than his own.

What was going on?

The River Spirit was stunned; this was the first time he had encountered such a situation.

The bubbling bubbles gradually decreased until they disappeared. The river surface was terrifyingly calm, with only the aura emitted by the River Spirit causing ripples under his feet.

"Why is there no movement? He won't drown, will he?" the River Spirit muttered. He wasn't too worried about Meng Jingzhou actually drowning; this was an illusion, and people couldn't drown here.

Before the River Spirit could figure out what Meng Jingzhou wanted to do, a strange change happened again!

The ripples on the river surface became more frequent. The River Spirit frowned slightly; he controlled his power well, and it shouldn't have been caused by the aura he emitted.

He realized: "It's that kid who jumped into the river just now!"

He saw strands of golden aura mixed in the stream, and the water vapor on the river surface emitted wisps of immortal intent, as if some great terror was gestating at the bottom of the river!

The unknown great terror made one's heart palpitate!

Three fountains surged on the river surface, spraying higher and higher, splashing pale golden water mist that filled the entire river surface, making it impossible for the River Spirit to see what was happening for a while.

A wind from nowhere blew away the pale golden water mist.

Three figures appeared, all looking like Meng Jingzhou, but their momentum was earth-shattering compared to before.

The River Spirit trembled; that was an instinctive reaction from the depths of his soul!

Commoner Meng Jingzhou, Great Cultivator Meng Jingzhou, and... Immortal Meng Jingzhou!

This was the fundamental rule of the illusion: when a common object falls into the river, it will undergo three changes: common, magic, and immortal.

"Give it here, you." The three Meng Jingzhous said in unison, taking away their own axes.

With Immortal Meng Jingzhou there, the River Spirit had no power to fight back and was at his mercy.

Immortal Meng Jingzhou got the immortal treasure Heaven-Opening Axe, Great Cultivator Meng Jingzhou got the magic treasure Mountain-Opening Axe, and Commoner Meng Jingzhou, acting like a fox borrowing a tiger's might, took the worn-out axe before the River Spirit could react.

With all three axes in hand, the illusion shattered, and Meng Jingzhou passed the test.

Those who passed the second test would temporarily fall into a coma; this was the human body's self-protection mechanism.

The Profound Heaven Sect crowd looked at Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou, who had passed the second test, and remained silent for a long time.

What happened to the honest people?

Yun Zhi remained silent. She had a premonition that if these two people were recruited into the Profound Heaven Sect, the sect would never have a peaceful day.

She hoped the premonition was wrong.

The real River Spirit appeared, holding the gold and silver axes, and rushed towards Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou aggressively.

As the guardian spirit of the Profound Heaven Sect, he had never suffered such a great humiliation.

"Don't stop me! Today I must teach these two little brats a lesson, break their hands and feet, and then put them back together!"

Seeing this, the Profound Heaven Sect disciples hurriedly stopped the angry River Spirit.

"River Spirit Senior, you can't cut them!"

"River Spirit Senior, please calm down."

"If something happens to the people participating in the test and it gets out, our Profound Heaven Sect's reputation will be ruined!"

In the end, Dai Bufan came forward to stop the furious River Spirit.

"River Spirit Senior, rest assured, the third test was designed by me, Dai Bufan. I will definitely be able to teach these two a lesson."

Seeing Dai Bufan guarantee it so confidently, the River Spirit finally gave up.

The third test, as the grand finale, had two plans: one proposed by Yun Zhi, which was relatively gentle, and one proposed by Dai Bufan, which was somewhat cruel. Both could test the heart of the Dao. After everyone voted, they unanimously decided to choose Yun Zhi's plan.

Yun Zhi's plan was too gentle; even if one couldn't pass, there was no punishment. To appease the River Spirit's anger, they could only choose Dai Bufan's plan.

Yun Zhi didn't have any objections to this.

It was good to let these two little guys suffer a bit.

The second test screened out a large group of people. Facing the temptation of the three axes, many people followed their inner desires and lied to the River Spirit that they had dropped the Heaven-Opening Axe and the Mountain-Opening Axe.

They were screened out and left the illusion, complaining one after another that the Profound Heaven Sect's second test was too difficult.

However, not everyone complained that the second test was too difficult; for example, those who passed didn't complain.

"The second test was quite simple," Man Gu said. "Just tell the truth."

The people waiting for the third test nodded one after another, all saying the same thing as Man Gu.

"What? So we weren't supposed to jump into the river and snatch the axes from the River Spirit?" Meng Jingzhou shouted. Why did everyone else's approach differ from his?

Lu Yang rolled his eyes at Meng Jingzhou, thinking he was truly stupid: "If the River Spirit wasn't an illusion but real, wouldn't you have provoked the River Spirit?"

"You should have done what I did: ask for the River Spirit's axes and throw them all into the river. That way, all three axes count as having been dropped by us."

Meng Jingzhou suddenly realized: "You're still the smart one."

The crowd silently watched Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou summarizing their experience, beginning to wonder if their own way of passing was wrong?

Man Gu nodded gently. He remembered his father saying that the Ancient Barbarians almost perished precisely because they were arrogant and unlearned. As descendants, they must overcome this shortcoming and humbly learn from others.

Man Gu felt he had found someone to learn from.

Just as everyone was discussing what the correct way to pass was, Yun Zhi, Dai Bufan, and other Profound Heaven Sect disciples appeared.

A smile hung on the corner of Dai Bufan's mouth. He flipped his palm, and a palm-sized mountain appeared. The mountain grew with the wind, and within a few breaths, it grew to a height of a hundred zhang.

Everyone gasped in low voices; this move was rare even among immortal cultivators.

The mountain was densely covered with trees, lush and green, no different from a real mountain. On one side of the mountain, there were long climbing stairs leading straight to the summit.

"This object is called the Heart-Questioning Mountain, a strange object I asked an elder to refine. On the Heart-Questioning Mountain, immortals and mortals are equal. What you need to do is climb the Heart-Questioning Mountain; the higher you climb, the firmer your will."

"Climb to the fiftieth step, and you can pass."

Someone raised a question: "But in this way, wouldn't Man Gu have an advantage?"

The fifteen-year-old Man Gu had the physique of a twenty-five or twenty-six-year-old, a head taller than others. Climbing indeed gave him an advantage; his strides were long, one step equaling two of others.

Dai Bufan laughed: "Don't worry about this problem. The Heart-Questioning Mountain will pull everyone's physical fitness to the same level. Whether you are a mortal or an immortal cultivator, in my Heart-Questioning Mountain, you will become a mortal."

"Is there a time limit?" someone else asked.

"No."

Everyone was overjoyed. No time limit meant they could keep trying, right? Why worry about not passing the third test?

Could it be that this third test was just a formality?

"Can we use magic treasures?" They had special magic treasures bestowed by their clans that could be used without spiritual energy, which was a great weapon.

Dai Bufan laughed with a bit of schadenfreude: "You can."

If the magic treasures could still be used.